Itinerary Advice

Rome. The fast train to Naples is about an hour and a quarter, but it's not cheap. You can save by buying tickets in advance, but the tickets are non-refundable and if they allow for a change, there's a fee involved. The slow, cheap trains take closer to 3 hours each way. To get to the Amalfi coast ("AC"), you will have to take a slow train or a ferry from Naples onward. It's too long and too far for a day trip. If the AC is high on your list (as it should be), then cut some time from Tuscany and head down for 3-4 days.

Florence. That's quite a few days, especially since you are planning to be in "neighboring" Siena for a week as well. If you love Renaissance art and architecture, you will enjoy 6-7 days in Florence. If not, 1-2 days will probably be enough. Pisa is a half-day trip.

Venice. I love it and think 3 days is the bare minimum. But there are those who think 2 days is more than enough. You probably won't know until you get there. Verona is one of my favorite towns in Italy and well worth 2 days.

Consider adding Ravenna between Florence and Venice. You change to a local train at Bologna (perhaps also worth a day or two). The 5th and 6th century mosaics are stunning and plentiful.

What a fun trip! My humble opinion, stated in nights as it's easier/more productive to think in terms of how many nights you will lay your head somewhere:
Rome - 8 nights - no daytrips
Orvieto - 4 nights is plenty; daytrip to Civita di Bagnoreggio and maybe to Assisi
Siena - 7 nights; daytrip to smaller hill towns and to Firenze unless you really want to see ALL the art in Firenze. If so, spend a week in Firenze and day trip to Siena and other hilltowns like Lucca, Volterra, San Gimignano
Dolomites: Bolzano, Ortisei, or some other lovely little alpine town - 6 nights
Venice - 5 nights minimum. so much to see; day trip to the islands, day trip to Padova
Lake Como - 4 nights maximum
Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast - 7 nights in one or two locations. Example: 4 nights Sorrento, 3 nights Ravello. Ravello has a great concert season beginning in April.

That's 41 nights. Maybe add 3 or 4 nights in the Cinque Terre? And the above is not necessarily in order. Start in Rome or south and progress north.

In 6 weeks you can pack quite a bit of places to visit in Italy. Most people don't have much more than 3 weeks at their disposal.
First and foremost, Rome is too far from the Amalfi Coast to be done as a day trip. You could do Naples as day trip, since the high speed train takes only 70 minutes, but to the Amalfi Coast you are looking at another 2 hours from Naples because you'll be dealing with buses in a very tortuous road. Capri is also a good place to visit in the area, but that would require extra time for sea crossing. I suggest that you spend at least 4 or 5 nights in the area (maybe in Sorrento, maybe Positano) and enjoy the place from there. In the area you can visit Amalfi Coast, Capri, Procida, Sorrento, Pompeii, Naples, the Vesuvius etc. I'm sure you can easily stay busy a week and not see everything.
Rome needs at least 4 nights (that's 3 full days).
Orvieto is an easy day trip from Rome, so you could add a day to Rome and visit Orvieto from Rome. If you prefer to stay overnight in Orvieto, then stay no more than 3 nights (2 full days). Devote one day to Orvieto and one to a day trip to Civita di Bagnoregio.
Florence alone needs 3 nights (2 full days), Pisa and Lucca can be done on the same day trip from Florence. Siena can be done as a day trip from Florence. But if you want you can stay in Siena you can visit Siena in one day easily and visit some hill towns (the Orcia valley, Monteriggioni, San Gimignano, Volterra) for 2 or 3 days.
Between Florence and Siena you have 14 days. That' a little too long IMO. You could use 6 or 7 nights to visit the Dolomites mountains, Verona and Lake Garda.
Lake Como deserves a few days, but not 7. I think that 3 nights in Varenna will be plenty, 4 nights would be my maximum tolerable.
See how many nights you come up with the changes, and if you have at least 8 extra nights you could even venture into Sicily. For that you will have to fly. There are flights to Sicily from both Rome and Naples.

I agree with the other replies. Two weeks total in Florence and Siena is a lot, particularly if you won't have a car. If you will and REALLY want to see rural Tuscany, fine; otherwise, cut it back. And yes, people's appreciation of Florence is often tied to how much they like Renaissance art; there are certainly other things to see and do, but if this doesn't interest you, you can definitely decrease your Florence time.

The whole point of Lake Como is that it's lacking in "turnstile attractions," and is all about, in Rick's great phrase, "seeing how low you can get your pulse." So, more than 3-4 days would start to get very boring (don't get me wrong, I loved my few days there, but I wouldn't overdo it). If you do have more time in Lake Como, you can do a daytrip to Milan, which is very worthwhile. Although many don't like it, I do, and it will be a nice contrast to the other places you're going in Italy.

Venice should definitely be more than 3 days, given how much time you have. It has a unique atmosphere, there is a lot to see in Venice proper, there are lots of possible day trips (Padova, Verona, Vicenza, lagoon islands like San Michele, Murano, Burano, and Torcello), or you can just spend your time wandering the city.

While Naples can be seen by day trip from Rome, the Amalfi Coast can't be (or at least, can't be enjoyed that way). If you want to see the Amalfi Coast, plus Sorrento and Capri, you should plan at least 4 days based in the area, and for a comprehensive visit (the above plus Pompeii, Herculaneum, Paestum, and some resting) a week isn't too long.

I sure wish I had the problem of how to spend 45 days in Italy (congratulations on your retirement). Happy planning!

How about adding 2_3 nights in the cinque terra

frank,

Congratulations on your retirement! You'll quickly get used to the new routine of "every day is a Saturday" and it will be "the best job you never had"!

I agree with many of the suggestions from the others. Normally I'd suggest starting in Venice, however at that time of year Rome should be warmer. In order to plan the specifics for touring in each location, I'd recommend picking up a copy of the RS Italy 2014 Guidebook (available now). There's an enormous amount of information there, including sightseeing, hotels, restaurants, transportation, etc.

As someone else mentioned, it's easy to take a day trip to Naples from Rome, but the "Amalfi Coast" is going to be considerably more difficult. If that area is important to you, I'd suggest spending 3-4 days in Sorrento, which would allow day trips to Positano and Capri, as will as visits to Pompeii and other sites in that area.

While Lago di Como is a beautiful location, four days should be about perfect unless you just want to "chill out" and explore a few of the towns on the lake. I assume you're planning to stay in Varenna?

Again as mentioned, you might add a few days in the Cinque Terre as well (add that between Siena and Florence). It will be the start of the new season in April, so it should be a bit quieter. While there you can explore the five towns, sample some of the local Sciacchetra and of course enjoy some great Pesto in the area where it was invented. Of the C.T. towns, I prefer to stay in Monterosso as it's the largest of the five towns and has the greatest number of hotels, restaurants and other tourist facilities.

Are you planning your flight home from Milano / MXP?

Good luck with your planning!

Somehow I feel you are spending too much of your time allotment in Toscana. If you want a slow-mode vacation that is fine, but then pick an accommodation for a whole 3-week period.

With all the time you have, I'd give serious consideration to spending some time in Sicilia. To keep it with your general (wise) plan of staying up to one week each place, I'd stay somewhere on the Eastern coast for a week. Catania is you want a medium-sized city with some buzz. Consider also Siracusa. From there you can take day-trips to the Etna volcano, Siracusa, Piazza Armerina, Modica/Ragusa, Noto valley, Taormina, Capo Passero and more. A car is recommended due to lousy train service south and west of Catania or Siracusa. This is actually a good time to visit the island: pleasant weather and no summer crowds yet.

Another destination you could consider is a stint between Matera, Lecce and Otranto. Lecce is a city with an interesting baroque architecture heritage. Matera is home to the world-famous sassi, houses sculpted on rocks.

L'Aquila and Urbino are two small-ish towns well worth 2 full days of visiting and sightseeing.

With time to spare, don't visit Napoli, let alone Capri or any area on the famous Amalfi coast in a hurry: pick a basis (Sorrento is the most useful for train access, anywhere else is okay if you have a car), and take some days to enjoy the area without haste.

After ten trips to Italy, finally tried Sicily, and loved it so much we returned asap! Since your trip starts in April -- fly into Rome and go directly to Sicily, since it will be warmer there, then to Naples/Sorrento and go North. To save on back-tracking, you could fly home out of Milano. This is, of course, just a rough draft, but I hope you'll consider it. If you decide to try Sicily, PM me, I have lots of new info from my most recent trip that I've that I have saved in a file.

We never had the luxury of a full six weeks in Italy, but have spent as much as three weeks on one trip. We have family in the North near Ravenna, and that was our first trip. Second, the Big Three, Rome, Florence, Venice, returned to our favorites several times, and now find that Sicily is our new Favorite.

Congratulations on your retirement! Life has just begun!

Frank_park - Congrats on your retirement and this wonderful trip.
Gee, when I retired, all I did was clean out my garage. I'm very envious.
Happy Travels and hope you have a wonderful trip to Italy.